Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.3/2 - Downgrading Repositories

For those of you who have worked across multiple versions of BI EE, you would have noticed that the Repository files( .rpd files) are not backward compatible(but they are a upward compatible) i.e One cannot use a rpd file created with a higher version of the Admin tool in a lower version of the Admin tool. But the vice versa is possible. Look at the screenshot below,

      

I got the above error, after trying to open a repository that was created with 10.1.3.3.0 of the Admin tool from 10.1.3.3.2 version of the Admin tool. Now, how do we downgrade the repository to a lower version. In earlier releases of BI EE and Siebel Analytics, there was a tool called as nqgenoldverrpd.exe which would automatically downgrade the repositories. But in the current releases we do not have this tool. So, in order to downgrade in the later releases lets look at an approach today. Just remember this is not a supported approach and this assumes that you are not using any new features(in your rpd) that are specific to the newer version of the Admin tool. Ensure that you are taking a backup of all the repositories before trying this The below diagram explains the versions that i have in 2 different machines.

      

As shown above, i have 10.1.3.3.0 version of the Admin tool in Machine A and 10.1.3.3.2 version of the Admin tool in Machine B. Our aim is to make the repository created with the Admin tool in Machine B, work with the Admin tool in Machine A. In order to achieve this, go to machine B and open up a command prompt. Type in the following command.

D:OracleOracleBIserverbinnqudmlgen -U Administrator -P Administrator -R bise1.rpd -O bise1.txt

      

So, what we are basically doing is we are creating the UDML of the repository using the nqudmlgen.exe utility. Once this done, copy the bise1.txt to Machine A. Open up the copied UDML file (bise1.txt) in a text editor. One the top of this text file you would basically see something like the one below.

DECLARE REPOSITORY PROPERTIES (
‘CustomPresentationLayer’ = ’01′,
‘PersistedNextUpgradeID’ = ‘BA500000′);
VERSION 1.1.185;

We got the above mentioned error because of the VERSION 1.1.185. Now, edit this line and change it to 180 (for 10.1.3.3.0 version. This number varies for each version of BI EE release).

DECLARE REPOSITORY PROPERTIES (
‘CustomPresentationLayer’ = ’01′,
‘PersistedNextUpgradeID’ = ‘BA500000′);
VERSION 1.1.180;

Save this file in Machine A and then in Machine A open up a command prompt and enter the below command.

D:oracleOracleBIserverBinnqudmlexec -U Administrator -P Administrator -I bise1.txt -O bise1_new.rpd

      

Again, we are basically using the nqudmlexec.exe utility to recreate the repository from the UDML text file. But now we should be able to open the repository in the lower version of the Admin tool.

      

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